RRND Email Full Text (Scheduled)

  • Russian attacks kill seven in Ukraine as Kyiv targets gas plants deep in Arctic

    Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]

    “Russian forces have launched attacks across Ukraine, killing at least seven people, according to Ukrainian officials, as Kyiv claimed responsibility for a drone attack that set off a fire at a natural gas plant deep in Russia’s Arctic region. Four people were killed in a Russian attack in Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine overnight on Thursday, while three were killed in a drone attack on a shopping centre in the northeastern city of Sumy, according to Ukrainian authorities. … Russian authorities said Ukrainian forces had launched a drone attack on the country’s Yamal-Nenets region, which is located some 2,800 kilometres (1,700 miles) from the Ukrainian border. Dmitry Artyukhov, the region’s governor, said the attack targeted an industrial facility in Novy Urengoy. The attack was repelled, but falling debris from the drone caused a fire, he said on Telegram.” (09/10/26)

    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/9/10/russian-attacks-kill-7-in-ukraine-as-kyiv-targets-gas-plants-deep-in-arctic

  • Trump tries to pull GOP out of midterm hole he dug for it with $5,000 bribe pledge

    Source: Le Monde [France]

    “A defiant Donald Trump vowed on Wednesday, August 9, that Republicans would ‘surge forward’ in November’s midterms, seeking to rally his party against grim election forecasts, weak approval ratings and mounting voter discontent over prices and his war with Iran. The president took the stage at an extraordinary Republican midterm convention in Dallas, a two-day gathering dubbed ‘Trumpapalooza,’ built around persuading his supporters that he is effectively on the ballot on November 3. … He promised every American adult would get $5,000 from the federal government if his Republican Party succeeds. … He did not say where the money would come from, citing only that ‘our country is making so much money.'” (09/10/26)

    https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2026/09/10/trump-basks-in-trumpapalooza-vows-republicans-will-surge-forward-in-midterms_6757367_4.html

  • Israel: Netanyahu to sue Haaretz for defamation over report UAE warned him prior to October 7 attack

    Source: New York Post

    “Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that he had instructed his lawyers to file a defamation lawsuit against Haaretz, journalist Shlomi Eldar and others over the newspaper’s claims that the United Arab Emirates had warned him ahead of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre. Netanyahu said reviews by the Prime Minister’s Office, National Security Council and military secretariat found no record of a conversation between him and UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan from the beginning of September through Oct. 7, 2023. He also said entry records showed no visit by an Emirati representative who, according to Netanyahu, would have been required to facilitate such a call. … Haaretz reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed senior foreign sources, that Mohammed bin Zayed had warned Netanyahu shortly before Oct. 7 that Hamas was planning a major attack.” (09/09/26)

    https://nypost.com/2026/09/09/world-news/netanyahu-to-sue-haaretz-for-defamation-over-claim-uae-warned-him-prior-to-oct-7-massacre/

  • Trump regime officials push to end constitutionally mandated censuses as of 2030

    Source: The Guardian [UK]

    “The Trump administration on Wednesday proposed changes to the US census intended to exclude immigrants without legal [sic] status in addition to other groups, with potentially significant effects on the allocation of federal resources and drawing of districts in the House of Representatives. In a proposed rule published in the Federal Register, the Census Bureau also announced it was considering changes to the data it collects about race and ethnicity, amid the Trump administration’s push to rid the government of diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Conducted decennially, the census historically counts the ‘whole number of persons’ in the United States …” [editor’s note: Counting the whole number of persons in the US is what it’s constitutionally required to do and all it’s constitutionally allowed to do. Anything less or more isn’t “the census” as defined therein – TLK] (09/09/26)

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/09/trump-census-changes-immigrants

  • RI: Dan McKee becomes first governor in eight years to lose primary

    Source: Politico

    “Rhode Island Democratic Gov. Dan McKee became the first governor in eight years in the U.S. to lose a primary, falling on Wednesday to former CVS executive Helena Foulkes and becoming the latest victim of a rough year for incumbents. McKee’s campaign was bogged down by the botched handling of a years-long project to rebuild the Washington Bridge, which transports more than 70,000 drivers through Providence each day. The project has suffered from delays, cost overruns and disputes between state officials and former contractors that have raised questions about transparency and accountability for the project. … The last incumbent governor to lose a primary was Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer in 2018.” (09/09/26)

    https://www.politico.com/news/2026/09/09/dan-mckee-loses-rhode-island-primary-01069983

  • UK: Police launch criminal investigation into Reform UK donations

    Source: BBC News [UK state media]

    “The Metropolitan Police is carrying out a criminal investigation into Reform UK over allegations it broke foreign funding laws, following a broadcast by Channel 4 News last week. An undercover reporter recorded two senior Reform aides apparently suggesting a way around electoral law to secure foreign party donations, one of which would have totalled £500,000. The police investigation by the Met’s Special Enquiry Team is being folded into an inquiry that has been under way into other donations to the party. A Reform UK spokesman said the party ‘denies any wrongdoing and will fully cooperate with the investigation’.” (09/09/26)

    https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp3k72k1y3vo

  • Serbia: Vucic calls snap parliamentary election for November

    Source: Associated Press

    “Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic on Wednesday called an early parliamentary election for Oct. 25 after nearly two years of street protests that have rattled his rule. He issued a decree dissolving the 250-member Parliament and paving the way for the vote. He said a snap election was necessary because of ongoing tensions and divisions in the Balkan country. Vucic, who cannot run for another presidential term, has said he plans to run for prime minister instead. … The ballot will be held against the backdrop of heightened political tensions as ruling populists seek to hold on to power despite widespread popular discontent.” (09/09/26)

    https://apnews.com/article/serbia-election-vucic-protests-students-list-feb0e1f19d86c9d0a705f043dc136ca2

  • Zelenskiy’s plane almost hit by drone, Norway’s PM says

    Source: Reuters

    “The plane carrying Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to Oslo for the funeral of ​the king of Norway was nearly struck by a drone ‌when taking off from Moldova on Tuesday, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere told public broadcaster NRK on Wednesday. … Officials in Moldova made no comment on Stoere’s statement regarding Zelenskiy’s plane. Arrivals ​and departures at Chisinau airport were suspended for a time on Tuesday in connection with two Russian drones that entered Moldovan airspace. Several flights bound for the capital landed ​at airports outside Moldova or were forced into holding patterns, according ​to data from Flightradar24. One drone landed in a field, triggering a fire, while the ‌second carried ⁠on into Romanian airspace.” (09/09/26)

    https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/zelenskiys-plane-almost-hit-by-drone-tuesday-norway-pm-says-2026-09-09/

  • Trump predicts Iran war will end ‘immediately after’ midterm election

    Source: USA Today

    “President Donald Trump has a new prediction for when the Iran war will end and Americans can expect gas prices to come down: immediately after the midterm elections. ‘I think the war is going to end immediately after the election,’ Trump said on Sept. 9, as he prepared to depart Joint Base Andrews for the GOP’s midterm convention in Dallas. ‘I think the war will end immediately after the election,’ he repeated. Iran can’t hold out for longer than that, Trump said of the election that’s in 55 days. ‘They’re desperate to try and affect the election, so that we can get a nice group of weak people in there, and leave them alone, and let them have their nuclear weapon,’ Trump said.” [editor’s note: Legally, the war never began and continues to be wholly illegal – TLK] (09/09/26)

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2026/09/09/trump-iran-war-end-midterm-election/91678565007/

  • MO: Court opens contempt probe into Republican official over redistricting fight

    Source: NBC News

    “The no-holds-barred fight over congressional maps in Missouri has reached a new level of intensity with the state’s high court opening a contempt probe into Secretary of State Denny Hoskins. The Missouri Supreme Court late Tuesday issued an order asking Hoskins, a Republican, to explain ‘why he should not be held in contempt’ for violating a ruling last week that said the state cannot use a newly drawn GOP map. Despite the ruling, Hoskins continued to push to use the new map. The court also ordered Hoskins to appear in person when the judges hold a hearing in the case Thursday. Hoskins indicated in a post on X that he would not back down. … Should the Missouri Supreme Court ruling remain in effect, a map drawn in 2022, with six Republican-held seats and two Democratic-held seats, would be in place for the general election.” (09/09/26)

    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/missouri-court-opens-contempt-probe-republican-official-redistricting-rcna596803

  • As deadline nears, temporary protections for 200,000 Salvadoran immigrants in limbo

    Source: SFGate

    “Temporary legal protections for about 200,000 immigrants from El Salvador was in limbo Wednesday as a deadline neared for the Trump administration to decide if they should end, as it has done for hundreds of thousands from Venezuela, Haiti and other countries. The Temporary Protected Status designation expires Wednesday but the statute does not give a specific time for when that happens. If the Department of Homeland Security takes no action, protections are automatically extended for six months. This rare reprieve happened in May, when the protections were automatically extended to about 11,000 Lebanese, allowing them to stay and work in the U.S. for another 180 days. DHS said in a statement Wednesday that it will announce a decision on El Salvador ‘at the appropriate time’ and that protections would remain in place until then.” (09/09/26)

    https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/temporary-protections-for-about-200-000-22423879.php

  • Bangladesh in grips of world’s worst measles outbreak, with 1,000 dead in last 6 months

    Source: CBC News [Canadian state media]

    “Bangladesh, which once came close to eliminating measles, is facing its worst outbreak on record, with around 1,000 suspected and confirmed measles-related deaths reported since March, as hospitals struggle with overcrowding, shortages and a continuing influx of sick children. The South Asian country is currently experiencing the biggest measles outbreak in the world, according to a list on the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website, recording more than 57,000 cases between January and June. But the numbers may be far higher than that, according to Bangladesh’s Health Ministry. Since the outbreak emerged in March, Bangladesh has recorded more than 166,000 suspected measles cases, including 19,835 ​laboratory-confirmed infections, according to Health Ministry data.” (09/09/26)

    https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/bangladesh-worst-measles-outbreak-9.7337063

  • Anthropic Alignment Lead Warns There’s ‘>10% Chance’ AI Could ‘Kill All Humans’ By Next Decade

    Source: Forbes

    “A senior researcher who leads Anthropic’s alignment efforts said Tuesday that many in the company believed AI could wipe out humanity and warned that the company is not on track to solve the issue of aligning AI’s goals with humanity’s, despite its efforts, after another researcher quit the company, accusing it of not acting responsibly. Evan Hubinger, the Alignment Science Lead at Anthropic, wrote on X that he and his colleagues do ‘earnestly believe AI could kill all humans,’ and he pegged his own estimate at more than 10% in the next decade. … Hubinger’s post responded to an X thread by another Anthropic researcher, Jacob Coxon, who announced he is resigning from the company over AI safety concerns.” (09/09/26)

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2026/09/09/anthropic-alignment-lead-warns-ai-could-kill-all-humans-as-researcher-quits/

  • For first time in 20 years, UN nuclear watchdog board reports Iran to UN Security Council

    Source: SFGate

    “The U.N. atomic watchdog’s board on Wednesday reported Iran to the U.N. Security Council for the first time in 20 years, citing it for failure to cooperate in a long-running investigation into uranium traces detected by inspectors at undeclared sites. Western officials suspect that the traces could provide evidence that Iran had a secret nuclear weapons program until 2003. Iran says that it’s not pursuing nuclear weapons, and that its program is entirely peaceful. Reporting Iran to the Security Council opens the country to possible sanctions and asset freezes, though such punitive measures are unlikely because Iran’s allies Russia and China hold veto power on the panel. Twenty-three countries on the International Atomic Energy Agency ’s 35-member board of governors voted for Wednesday’s resolution at IAEA headquarters in Vienna. ” (09/09/26)

    https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/un-nuclear-watchdog-board-reports-iran-to-the-un-22424034.php

  • EU court hands another defeat to Abramovich in fight against sanctions

    Source: Politico

    “The EU’s General Court has rejected Russian tycoon Roman Abramovich’s challenge to sanctions imposed on him following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, upholding asset freezes and travel restrictions against the billionaire. The Council of the EU acted within its powers when it extended the measures against the billionaire former owner of Chelsea Football Club in 2022 through September 2025 and March 2026, judges ruled, according to a statement issued by the Court on Wednesday. Abramovich, who holds Russian, Israeli and Portuguese nationality, is the majority shareholder in Evraz, one of Russia’s largest steel and mining groups. He also owns shares in Norilsk Nickel, a major producer of palladium and refined nickel. The EU Court said the bloc’s sanctions criteria were objective, sufficiently precise and proportionate. They target prominent businesspeople operating in Russia, particularly those active in sectors that provide significant revenue to the Russian government.” (09/09/26)

    https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-court-hands-another-defeat-to-abramovich-in-fight-against-sanctions/

  • Poll: Mistrust of US regime information is rising across major issues

    Source: Houston Chronicle

    “Americans are more skeptical of government information than they were a few years ago, with majorities now saying they have little or no trust in federal government information about elections and politics, foreign affairs or the environment, a new poll finds. The survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and USA Facts shows that while mistrust of government information has grown since 2024, it’s also higher than it was at the end of President Donald Trump’s first term, underscoring how his recent attempts to dismantle the federal bureaucracy may have affected public confidence in the executive branch, particularly among Democrats. … About 6 in 10 U.S. adults have low trust in information from the federal government about the environment, foreign affairs, elections and politics, abortion or immigration — saying they trust it ‘only a little’ or ‘not at all.'” (09/09/26)

    https://www.chron.com/news/politics/article/mistrust-of-us-government-information-is-rising-22423404.php

  • Israel opens embassy in Slovenia as small EU nation shifts policies

    Source: SFGate

    “Israel opened its first embassy in Slovenia on Wednesday, boosting relations with the small European Union nation even as ties sour with some longtime allies over its policy on illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar travelled to Ljubljana, Slovenia’s capital, for the occasion that asserts a shift in Slovenia’s policy toward Israel under the current right-wing Prime Minister Janez Jansa. Saar called the embassy opening a ‘historic day’ after a meeting with his Slovenian counterpart Tone Kajzer. He described Israel as ‘the only democracy in the Middle East and almost the only real and true partner of Europe’, the STA news agency reported. ‘Moreover, we are defending Europe, Europe’s security, directly and indirectly,’ Saar said, adding that ‘Israel is the fortress on the front line for Western civilization’. Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside the new embassy building to protest the visit, demanding the embassy’s closure.” (09/09/26)

    https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/israel-opens-embassy-in-slovenia-as-small-eu-22424151.php

  • UK: Regime Summons Air Traffic Boss After Major Outage as Flights Slowly Resume

    Source: US News & World Report

    “Flights from British ⁠airports ⁠resumed on Wednesday after a major air ⁠traffic failure, but questions mounted about the reliability of Britain’s aviation systems and ministers called ​in the flight control boss to explain the shutdown. The hours-long outage on Tuesday, which resulted in the cancellation of more than 1,000 ‌flights and left hundreds of thousands of ‌passengers stranded, has ramped up pressure on air traffic control provider NATS and its boss Martin Rolfe. Transport minister Heidi Alexander will ⁠later on Wednesday ⁠hear from Rolfe after she summoned him to explain what happened, amid concerns that ​the infrastructure and technology are not up to scratch. The shutdown comes three years after the last system meltdown in August 2023, when cancelled flights on one of the busiest travel days of the year cost airlines £100 million ($135 million).” (09/09/26)

    https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-09-09/uk-flights-resume-but-airports-warn-of-ongoing-disruption-from-air-traffic-outage

  • ‘South Park’ becomes ‘South America’

    Source: CNBC

    “Television comedy series ‘South Park’ has announced it is changing its name to ‘South America’ as the show is set to begin its 29th season on Sept. 16. The show’s creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone said, ‘Inspired by the bravery and patriotism of Apple and Google, we are changing the name of South Park to SOUTH AMERICA. We especially want to thank our parent company Paramount — a Skydance Capitulation.’ Parker and Stone’s statement comes after U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America amid a trade spat with Canada. Canadian officials said they will not recognize the new name.” (09/08/26)

    https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/09/tv-show-south-park-changes-show-name-south-america-trump.html

  • TX: Republicans gathering for “Trump-a-palooza” convention in Dallas

    Source: SFGate

    “Republicans are gathering in Dallas on Wednesday for a highly unusual midterm convention, a ‘Trump-a-Palooza’ that will put President Donald Trump at the center of this fall’s midterm elections — whether the candidates running like it or not. New financial disclosures show Trump gave sizeable cash gifts to Natalie Harp and several other top aides. A White House official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the gifts were ‘entirely permissible under relevant legal and ethical standards’. And Americans are more skeptical of government information than they were a few years ago, with majorities now saying they have little or no trust in federal government information about elections and politics, foreign affairs or the environment, a new poll finds.” (09/09/26)

    https://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/the-latest-trump-gave-45-000-cash-to-natalie-22423577.php


  • The Framers Trusted States, Not Washington, With Elections

    Source: Cato Institute
    by Walter Olson

    “America has been a great innovator in the realm of elections, introducing many methods new developments from party primaries to early and mail voting. Some innovations fall by the wayside, while others catch on and become standard. Why trade this ferment of democracy for an arrangement where permission from Washington is required for anything new? Why risk foisting a bad method on everyone because someone in Washington liked it? Above all, the Framers did it this way because they feared that a ruling national faction, whether based in Congress or a White House, might someday gain power over election administration nationwide and use it to entrench themselves in office.” (09/09/26)

    https://www.cato.org/commentary/framers-trusted-states-not-washington-elections

  • You know what’s best for you

    Source: Eastern New Mexico News
    by Kent McManigal

    “What don’t I know? I don’t know exactly how you should live or every detail of your situation. I don’t know how to solve every possible random problem in the world. I don’t know what complications might arise. I don’t know solutions I can’t see or haven’t thought of. All the variables; the consequences of any potential solution. I don’t know how, or if, society should be run. I don’t know, and I accept it. While I’m comfortable saying I don’t know, there are also things I do know. I know that no one else knows those answers, either. If they claim to, they are being dishonest. Those who make up legislation are often even more ignorant about the topics they legislate on than the rest of us.” (09/09/26)

    https://www.easternnewmexiconews.com/story/2026/09/09/voices/opinion-you-know-whats-best-for-you/234143.html

  • Liberalism Under Threat

    Source: Liberalism.org
    by Michael C Munger

    “The state should not be dismissed as evil, but neither should it be romanticized as inherently good, a focus of moral value in and of itself. There are legitimate and difficult questions about whether there is a collective ‘will’ that the state discovers and enacts. The most plausible, and modest, claim is that people use the technology of ‘state power’ to provide mutual protection and achieve shared goals. The alternatives to this modest view of the state are a wide and haphazard range of different moral and practical collectivisms, imposed by central authorities. We can agree that the state must have police authority, but endowing the state with moral authority is simply incompatible with liberalism.” (09/09/26)

    https://www.liberalism.org/p/liberalism-under-threat

  • Welfare Queens of the Right and the Diet Coke of Socialists

    Source: The Erick Erickson Show
    by Erick-Woods Erickson

    “The people who brought us tariffs and said they’d cost us nothing now insist that putting stay-at-home moms on welfare will cost us nothing, too, so long as they get to keep picking the winners and losers. Moms who go to work get to subsidize those who do not. The GOP gets to open a new front in the culture war, pitting moms against moms. Superficially, the policy sounds good. Children raised in stable two-parent homes outperform every other group in school and in earnings, and a policy that makes those homes easier to build deserves a hearing. … The Vice President’s heart is in the right place, but his plan is a terrible idea. In the face of rising socialism, the Vice President is offering socialism-lite. And just as Diet Coke is never as popular as regular Coke, Diet Coke Socialism can’t beat the real thing either.” (09/09/26)

    https://ewerickson.substack.com/p/welfare-queens-of-the-right-and-the

  • Trump Iran War Outlook Faces Pushback from His Own Generals

    Source: Independent Institute
    by Ivan Eland

    “A rare leak of significant opposition among top U.S. military brass to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s intention to keep more than 50,000 American forces on alert in the Middle East reports a ‘more dire’ outlook for the Iran conflict’s effect on U.S. military readiness globally. According to the Washington Post, a source familiar with the generals’ assessment reported that the brass viewed the six-month war as ‘too much for too long.’ The leak was prompted by the Pentagon’s decision to keep some forces in the region into fiscal year 2027. U.S forces have been pulled from areas of the globe more strategic to U.S. interests than the Persian Gulf for a needless attack that turned into yet another American quagmire in the Greater Middle East, thus degrading worldwide training and readiness for more important missions.” (09/09/26)

    https://www.independent.org/article/2026/09/09/trump-iran-war-pushback-generals/

  • Colleges are failing, but they can still spark golden age for higher education

    Source: New York Post
    by Charles Mitchell

    “And then there were fewer. That’s the reality in higher education this academic year. About two dozen colleges and universities announced plans to shut down before graduation this past spring; more than 80 colleges closed or merged between 2020 and 2025. And more than 440 private colleges are at significant risk of shutting down in the near future — about a quarter of the nationwide total. Even sports powerhouses like New York’s Syracuse University are beginning to struggle financially, The Wall Street Journal reported last month. Where I’m from, near Philadelphia, at least a dozen institutions of higher education are in perilous financial shape: They just aren’t enrolling enough students to pay the bills. It’s a gloomy picture for alumni and academics — but there’s a silver lining. These failing schools could be the launching pad for higher education’s fundamental transformation.” (09/09/26)

    https://nypost.com/2026/09/09/opinion/failing-colleges-can-spark-higher-educations-golden-age-heres-how/

  • The Newest Drug War Boogeyman

    Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
    by Laurence M Vance

    “About 15 years ago, the great drug war boogeyman was bath salts. Instead of using these salts in the bathtub, people took to swallowing, snorting, injecting, smoking, and otherwise ingesting them. Fentanyl, a type of synthetic opioid more potent than heroin and morphine, soon replaced bath salts as the great drug war boogeyman. More recently, the new drug war boogeyman was nitazenes, another type of synthetic opioid. Nitazenes were said to be more potent than not only heroin and morphine but also fentanyl. The newest drug war boogeyman is kratom — leaves from a tree native to Southeast Asia that are used to increase energy and alleviate pain, coughing, anxiety, and depression.” (09/09/26)

    https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/the-newest-drug-war-boogeyman/

  • Adjudicating “History and Tradition”

    Source: Law & Liberty
    by Dennis Wieboldt

    “A Massachusetts case reminds us of the dangers and abuses of using history in legal rulings.” (09/09/26)

    https://lawliberty.org/adjudicating-history-and-tradition/

  • 25 Years of War Was the Exact Wrong Response to 9/11

    Source: Common Dreams
    by Medea Benjamin & Nicolas JS Davies

    “The lesson of 9/11 should be that war is not the answer to any of the problems facing the United States. After inflicting violence and chaos on country after country for twenty-five years in a ‘global war on terror’ that has evolved into a Zionist genocide and a revived Cold War against Russia and China, the widespread public opposition to Trump’s war on Iran suggests that most Americans have finally learned that lesson. Unfortunately, powerful sections of our corrupt business and political elites have not.” (09/09/26)

    https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/was-the-us-reaction-to-9-11-wrong

  • Home Equity and Net Worth

    Source: Bet On It
    by Bryan Caplan

    “Age is the great underrated factor. If you want to know how much home equity someone owns, knowing their percentile for their age is less informative than simply knowing their age. Almost everyone starts with low housing wealth, yet a large majority end up with massive housing wealth.” (09/09/26)

    https://www.betonit.ai/p/home-equity-and-net-worth

  • We cannot let the left [sic] rewrite what happened on 9/11

    Source: Fox News
    by Liz Peek

    “As we approach the 25th anniversary of 9/11, there are many in our country who want us to pretend that the greatest attack on the United States since Pearl Harbor never happened. They want us to look away from the Muslim terrorists who flew planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and who drove another plane full of innocents to their deaths in a grassy Pennsylvania field. They want us to forget that on that day in 2001, Americans came under attack for reasons that few understood, from a far-away people who loathe our culture, our freedoms and our country. When Rep. Ilhan Omar [D-MN] dismissively says, ‘Some people did something’, she is trying to erase the truth. ” (09/09/26)

    https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/liz-peek-cannot-let-left-rewrite-happened-911

  • The Failure of Europe’s Single-Payer Health Monopoly

    Source: Foundation for Economic Education
    by Cláudia Ascensão Nunes

    “American progressives continue to advocate for a Medicare for All system, pointing to the Old Continent as a utopian model of universal access to health care. However, in Europe, systems in which the state functions as both direct provider and single-payer monopolist continue to fail. Contrary to the narrative pushed by certain political circles, Europeans are increasingly adopting private health insurance. The structural flaws in countries that double down on centralized, state-run models show notable consistencies: swelling waiting lists, health care professionals fleeing a public sector constrained by rigid salary scales, and a systemic inability to allocate resources where they are needed most.” (09/09/26)

    https://fee.org/articles/the-failure-of-europes-single-payer-health-monopoly/

  • Remapping fresh worldviews

    Source: Christian Science Monitor
    by staff

    “The term geopolitics, frequently used in discussing global diplomacy and trade relations today, was coined only about 125 years ago. But the concept has been around far, far longer, as evident in the practice of cartography or mapmaking since ancient times. One of the earliest known world maps – created by the Babylonians in 600 B.C.E. – placed Babylonia at the center. Since then, seafaring and colonizing nations in particular have done much the same, centering their locations or adjusting sizes to project global reach and relevance. ‘A map is never neutral’, according to Robert Dussey, foreign minister of the small African nation of Togo. ‘It shapes perceptions, influences how the place of peoples and continents in the world is understood,’ he said at a United Nations briefing last week.” (09/08/26)

    https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0908/Remapping-fresh-worldviews

  • The PREP Act: Unchecked Power, Zero Accountability, and a Path Forward

    Source: Brownstone Institute
    by Robert Malone

    ‘Beginning in February 2020, the Secretary of Health and Human Services declared that Covid-19 warranted sweeping liability protections, meaning that if someone was injured or died from a Covid-19 vaccine, treatment, or related product, they generally cannot sue for damages in court. The only exception is for ‘willful misconduct’ causing death or serious injury—an extremely high legal standard that is very difficult to prove. Instead of accessing the traditional court system, injured individuals must seek compensation through a government program that has historically been difficult to navigate and provides limited relief.” (09/09/26)

    https://brownstone.org/articles/the-prep-act-unchecked-power-zero-accountability-and-a-path-forward/

  • Self-Command Is the Price of Freedom

    Source: Mindset Shifts
    by Barry Brownstein

    “Those who split the world into binaries—voluntary exchange on one side, state coercion on the other—miss a lot. They miss the enormous third thing Adam Smith described: the unenforced realm of ‘propriety,’ the decency, manners, and mutual forbearances that no contract specifies and no statute compels. If we want less state, we must have more propriety. A friend of liberty has a larger stake in the moral condition of society than the statist does.” (09/09/26)

    https://mindsetshifts.substack.com/p/self-command-is-the-price-of-freedom

  • What Makes Pharmaceutical Speaker Programs Illegal?

    Source: The Daily Economy
    by Christopher Crennen

    “The missing consumer in health care helps explain the strange economics — and legal risks — of drug companies paying doctors.” (09/09/26)

    https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/what-makes-pharmaceutical-speaker-programs-illegal/

  • Why CPI Ignores Homes, Stocks, and the Cost of Getting Ahead

    Source: The Daily Economy
    by Karl-Friedrich Israel

    “Capturing only what households consume, inflation stats miss the assets they hope to own. Recent inflation has rewarded existing owners at the expense of aspiring ones.” (09/09/26)

    https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/why-cpi-ignores-homes-stocks-and-the-cost-of-getting-ahead/

  • Lock and [Re-]Loaded: Third Circuit Greenlights Major Challenge to NJ Gun Liability Law

    Source: Jonathan Turley
    by Jonathan Turley

    “Some of us have been closely following challenges to A1765, New Jersey’s gun industry liability law. In my view, the law is facially invalid and preempted under federal law, and we may now find out after the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit greenlit a challenge from the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) yesterday. The court found that the NSSF has standing to bring the lawsuit, which could reach the United States Supreme Court. In 2022, New Jersey enacted A1765 to expose ‘gun industry members’ (gun sellers, manufacturers, distributors, importers, and marketers) to lawsuits as ‘a public nuisance’. This is a common effort among blue states to circumvent Second Amendment cases that reinforce the right to bear arms. These laws are designed to achieve indirectly what the Court denied directly to the states: to effectively suppress the availability of guns.” (09/09/26)

    https://jonathanturley.org/2026/09/09/lock-and-re-loaded-third-circuit-greenlights-major-challenge-to-new-jersey-gun-liability-law/

  • Why Conservative Republicans Are Worried About License Plate Cameras

    Source: Reason
    by Jacob Sullum

    “Last month, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott froze state funding for automated license plate readers (ALPRs), acknowledging concerns about the warrantless surveillance enabled by such AI-assisted cameras. Abbott took that step the day after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a fellow Republican, declared that ALPRs are ‘out of control.’ … The congressional response to ALPRs, including several bills and an investigation that Sen. Josh Hawley (R–Mo.) announced last month, has been dominated by conservative Republicans, which confirms that the backlash is not limited to libertarian or left-leaning critics. Whether it will yield effective constraints is another question.” (09/09/26)

    https://reason.com/2026/09/09/why-conservative-republicans-are-worried-about-license-plate-cameras/

  • 25 Years Ago, 9/11 Triggered a US Crusade of Torture

    Source: Antiwar.com
    by Norman Solomon

    “A quarter-century has passed since the terrorist attack that killed almost 3,000 people in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. During the first seven years after that mass atrocity, Pentagon spending doubled. The aftermath of 9/11 was also a huge boost for ‘the intelligence community.’ Despite – and because of – their failure to prevent the carnage on that day, the CIA and the National Security Agency as well as 14 smaller spy agencies boomed with enormous jolts of funds. Along the way, some line items paid for torture that persisted during the George W. Bush presidency under the euphemism of ‘enhanced interrogation techniques.'” (09/09/26)

    https://original.antiwar.com/solomon/2026/09/08/25-years-ago-9-11-triggered-a-us-crusade-of-torture/

  • Hegseth has been a disaster. It’s time for Trump to fire him.

    Source: Responsible Statecraft
    by Daniel L Davis

    “On November 12, 2024, I went on NBC News when Hegseth had been announced as Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense and argued that Hegseth might be just what we need, instead of another standard military-industrial-complex ‘veteran’ who never met a war he didn’t like. But I included two key caveats in my support. First, I argued that he had to be different from his predecessors and not just be a yes-man who prosecutes wars even if a sober analysis reveals we could not win them. Second, I warned that if we continued to support other wars and saw our stocks of key weapons systems plummet – especially missiles – he had to tell the president we could not go down that path (as it would put our own national security in unnecessary peril). Hegseth violated both of those warnings.” (09/09/26)

    https://responsiblestatecraft.org/trump-hegseth/

  • ‘Trumpapalooza’ is a sad, unnecessary spectacle that achieves nothing

    Source: Los Angeles Times

    “In the 19th century and much of the 20th century, the quadrennial party conventions were indispensable pieces of political technology. I mean that literally. Traditionally, conventions were where party stakeholders — elected officials, party bosses, etc. — chose the nominee. Factions representing regions, interests, even ideas (how quaint!) would debate and horse-trade with each other, sometimes over days of voting, to name someone the party could get behind. That system started to atrophy in the 1930s, as Michael Barone, the great political analyst, has argued, because of the telephone. … Polling, and then television, further sapped away the function of conventions. … party conventions essentially became infomercials ratifying a fait accompli. The brokered convention — even the prospect for one — is gone now, replaced by a coronation. But at least the coronation still serves a purpose. It’s still a necessary function of our electoral system. A boring, intelligence-insulting, performative function, but a function all the same. This midterm ‘convention’ isn’t even that.” (09/09/26)

    https://archive.is/Lf5T5

  • Cattle Ranchers Have a Beef With Trump

    Source: The American Prospect
    by David Dayen & Zachary Groz

    “On the day that the Trump administration announced the importation of 300,000 metric tons of ground beef without tariffs in an attempt to reduce current sky-high retail prices, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released its monthly Cattle on Feed Report, which showed growth in the amount of cattle on feedlots but at much lower percentages than estimated. Placements were also historically tight, at the lowest level for July in 30 years. What this means in layman’s terms is that ranchers should have been able to earn higher prices for heads of cattle, since supply was at a premium, for the first time in a while. After decades of falling profitability, over half of cattle ranches have shuttered in the U.S.” (09/09/26)

    https://prospect.org/2026/09/09/trump-meat-cattle-ranchers-beef/

  • A Mail Voting Fight About Nothing

    Source: The Dispatch
    by Stephen Richer

    “On Sunday, the Trump administration made its third appeal in less than six weeks to the Supreme Court, seeking to move ahead with implementing a role for the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) in overseeing mail ballots as some blue states try to block it. … There’s been lots of talk about election law, the president’s powers, whether the postal service can actually execute the role the president has tasked it with, and whether election administrators could handle the last-minute change. But overlooked in all the discussions is the fact that the administration is pursuing a change that will do nothing to make our elections more secure.” (09/09/26)

    https://thedispatch.com/article/postal-service-mail-ballots-trump-administration-supreme-court/

  • Trump’s Venezuelan Oil Deal Is a Big Gamble

    Source: The American Conservative
    by Joseph Addington

    “t the end of August, President Donald Trump announced a major deal with the government of Venezuela. The agreement would give the U.S. functional control of about 20 percent of Venezuela’s oil, which equates to over 65 billion barrels—or almost one and a half times more oil than the United States has in its own current proven reserves (which total approximately 46 billion barrels). … Trump, ever the dealmaker, appears to view this as the capstone of his Venezuela policy. Superficially, it bears the hallmarks of a triumph for a kind of crude foreign policy realism: American hard power, deployed narrowly, forced cooperation from a previously hostile neighbor and secured material benefits for the United States. … Despite the president’s enthusiasm, however, the Venezuelan oil deal is a clumsy instrument that introduces significant risks.” (09/09/26)

    https://www.theamericanconservative.com/trumps-venezuelan-oil-deal-is-a-big-gamble/

  • Trump’s Executive Order on Mail-in Ballots is an Assault on Federalism and Separation of Powers

    Source: The Volokh Conspiracy
    by Ilya Somin

    “President Donald Trump is trying to force states to severely curtail mail voting for the fall election by requiring the US Postal Service to refuse to deliver mail ballots unless states meet various onerous requirements. This plan is an affront to both federalism and the separation of powers. The Constitution grants state governments default authority over election administration, subject to override by Congress, when it comes to procedural rules for federal elections. Trump is seeking to usurp these powers.” (09/08/26)

    https://reason.com/volokh/2026/09/08/trumps-mail-order-ballot-order-is-an-assault-on-federalism-and-separation-of-powers/

  • LCR = LGB: YAY!

    Source: Town Hall
    by Deroy Murdock

    “Log Cabin Republicans, the GOP’s natural home for gay conservatives, recently filed for divorce from the transgender movement. High time and Hallelujah! As LCR’s president, Ross Hemminger, explained August 20 in Townhall: ‘In 2015, the Log Cabin Republicans Board of Directors voted to add the ‘T’ under the umbrella of our mission — out of a belief that all adults should be allowed to pursue their own happiness, free of government interference, as long as it did not impede on the inalienable rights of others.’ Hemminger’s thoughts parallel America’s innate libertarianism. When, for instance, fully grown decathlete Bruce Jenner became Caitlin, it was not everyone’s Olympic Gold Medal moment. However, it also was nobody’s javelin to discard but Jenner’s. Since then, Hemminger continued, ‘The transgender movement has ceased focusing on adults at all; nearly all of their efforts and those of their aligned special interest groups focus on minors.'” (09/09/26)

    https://townhall.com/columnists/deroymurdock/2026/09/09/lcr-lgb-yay-n2682665

  • ‘Stolen valor’: Trump’s 9/11 story draws scorn as fabrication

    Source: Asia Times
    by Stephen Prager

    “While Republicans express ‘offense’ at plans for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to attend September 11 remembrances this week due to his Muslim faith, US President Donald Trump provoked outrage on Tuesday when he told what seems to be a fabricated story about his heroism following the terrorist attack. … Trump has claimed on multiple occasions to have been present in the immediate aftermath of the attacks and has told a version of the same story before, including on the 2016 campaign trail. But many aspects of the tale are in doubt or contradicted by both the public record and others known to be involved in the recovery.” (09/09/26)

    https://asiatimes.com/2026/09/stolen-valor-trumps-9-11-story-draws-scorn-as-fabrication/

  • Bypassing the grid won’t save us from having to build more of it

    Source: Niskanen Center
    by Rachel Levine

    “The ‘co-location’ of power plants and large energy users on the same site is gaining traction as a way to provide electricity to data centers without raising household bills. It seems like a quick fix but is really a symptom of a grid that has struggled to anticipate and meet rising demand. While co-location may provide near-term relief for select industries willing to pay for it, it won’t scale to keep power reliable and affordable for everyone. To do that, we need interregional, high-voltage transmission to arbitrage power over long distances to serve load wherever it is.” [editor’s note: No, we need decentralized and localized generation. “The grid” is obsolete technology – TLK] 09/08/26)

    https://www.niskanencenter.org/bypassing-the-grid-wont-save-us-from-having-to-build-more-of-it/

  • What Does a Streetcar System Cost?

    Source: Show-Me Institute
    by Patrick Tuohey

    “Kansas City just spent over $100 million per mile for its Main Street streetcar extension, making it the most expensive system per mile in the United States. Last year, Randall O’Toole estimated that the average streetcar cost per mile is around $91 million. It’s worth looking at some recent examples to see if that number is accurate. Looking at recently opened systems (see table below), the cost per mile seems to be lower, at about $61.6 million.” (09/08/26)

    https://showmeinstitute.org/article/corporate-welfare/what-does-a-streetcar-system-cost/

  • Train Crashes Destroyed Their Towns, Will Yours Be Next?

    Source: In These Times
    by Maximillian Alvarez

    “Nearly 10 years before the train derailment and subsequent chemical disaster in East Palestine, Ohio, the town of Lac-Mégantic, Quebec experienced one of the deadliest rail disasters in North America. On July 6, 2013, a runaway train derailed in the center of town, leveling buildings and dumping millions of tons of crude oil onto the surrounding area. 47 people were killed in the explosion. In July, Maximillian Alvarez and Dr. Nicole Fabricant sat down with a panel of guests from East Palestine and Lac-Mégantic to discuss what happens when your town becomes a sacrifice zone and how residents can join together to fight back against the corporations responsible.” (09/08/26)

    https://inthesetimes.com/article/train-crashes-destroyed-towns-working-people-podcast-east-palestine

  • Higher Ed’s Great Correction: ‘Necessity Is the Mother of Invention’

    Source: Independent Institute
    by Richard K Vedder

    “The university establishment is getting an overdue education in markets, mission, and public trust.” (09/08/26)

    https://www.independent.org/article/2026/09/08/higher-eds-great-correction-necessity-is-the-mother-of-invention/

  • Stop Letting Politicians Milk 9/11 For Their Own Benefit

    Source: Garrison Center
    by Thomas L Knapp

    “As of September 8, Forbes reports, more than 100,000 people have signed a petition asking organizers of New York City’s 9/11 Commemoration Ceremony to ‘carefully consider whether [New York City mayor Zohran] Mamdani’s participation would align with the intention of the ceremony and the expectations of the families most directly affected by the tragedy.’ Coming from family members of people who died in the 9/11 attacks, the petition deserves a respectful hearing, whether the claims about Mamdani’s sentiments, sympathies and past actions ring true or not. They’re the people who lost loved ones. The ceremony is, or should be, for them. Unfortunately, some less deserving people compulsively run to the front of parades that aren’t about them. One such person is former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani.” (09/08/26)

    https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20888

  • America After 9/11: 25 Years of Fear, War, Surveillance and Permanent Emergency

    Source: Rutherford Institute
    by John & Nisha Whitehead

    “Twenty-five years after 9/11, one has to ask: has the nightmare ever really ended? For a quarter-century, Americans have been governed by fear: fear of terrorists and foreign enemies, fear of domestic extremists and political opponents, fear of the next attack, the next crisis, the next emergency.That fear has given us endless war, mass surveillance, militarized police, secret courts, indefinite detention, government watchlists, domestic military deployments and an imperial presidency armed with powers that would have been unthinkable before 9/11. Now the man entrusted with the imperial powers of the modern-day presidency is publicly imagining himself enthroned over robotic armies, raining destruction on his enemies and promising nightmares. The imagery may be unhinged from reality, but the powers of the presidency are not.” (09/08/26)

    https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/america_after_9_11_25_years_of_fear_war_surveillance_and_permanent_emergency

  • A Republic, If You Can Keep It

    Source: Independent Institute
    by William J Watkins, Jr.

    “An appreciation of the Constitution’s role in fashioning the American republic must begin with the American Revolution. More precisely, the impetus for the Revolution. The literature of the period yields one overarching theme: self-government.” (09/08/26)

    https://www.independent.org/article/2026/09/08/a-republic-if-you-can-keep-it/